Sweet Potatoes & French Bread Revisited

Alona, of the US Potato Board's new blog, The Potato Underground wrote me a lovely email after visiting my blog. She invited me to try out some of their recipes and share them with my readers. Well now, potatoes have to be one of our most favourite vegetables so how can I refuse an offer like that. I will be adding a link to their blog in my side bar. Please check back for some of their recipes and my report on them in future.

I love stopping at the farmer's market any time of the year but during the fall there is always an abundance. The one I frequent is a small, family owned market. They grow most of the produce themselves. They also have a nice freezer section and local crafts. Yesterday I stopped there and gosh did I ever get some good deals: 3 lb stuffer mushrooms, 1 lb portabellos, 2 huge sweet potatoes (2.75 lb & just shy of 4 lb), 2 large rutabagas, 20 lb large cooking onions, medium cabbage, 1.75 lb bananas and 9 kg (20 lb) bag of bird seed all for $23.37.

Sweet Potatoes

Many people use the terms yams and sweet potatoes interchangeably. In fact, the sweet potatoes were labelled as yams at the farmers market. However, yams and sweet potatoes are two different, unrelated vegetables. Yams are tubers of the tropical vine Dioscorea batatas. They have brown or black skin that resembles the bark of a tree with off-white, purple or red flesh. Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are yellow or orange tubers that have elongated ends tapering to a point. The yellow skinned sweet potato has a pale yellow flesh that is not as sweet with a dry, crumbly texture. The orange skinned variety is often called a yam. It has a thicker, dark orange to reddish skin. The flesh is a vivid orange with a sweet flavour and moist texture. Sweet potatoes are rich in fiber and vitamins A, C and B₆.

The sweet potatoes were enormous! I couldn't resist so bought two. One was 2.75 lb and the other just shy of 4 lbs. I decided to can some of the sweet potatoes, have some for dinner, perhaps keep enough out for sweet potato pie and freeze the rest. The canning method follows the stock canning method.

Canned Sweet Potatoes & Chicken Stock

Homemade stocks are incredibly easy to make and inexpensive. Their taste is well worth the effort! There are no preservatives, MSG or extra salt, just a nice, rich meat flavour. Stocks are made using the bones and broths are made using the meat. They can be defatted or left as is. Either can be canned for a convenient, ready to use pantry item or frozen so be sure to make lots and keep on hand. Think beyond chicken stock as well. Other stocks to have on hand include fish, beef, turkey, pork ,mushroom, vegetable and game (venison, etc). Save the bones until you have enough to make a big batch of stock. This batch of chicken stock was from the left-overs and bones of the chicken I canned the day before. I ended up with 5 - 1 L (quarts)* jars of partially defatted stock.

Note: I put the Canadian measurement first followed in brackets the American measurement for canning instructions.

Canning Stocks
Make your favourite stock or use my basic chicken stock recipe. Ladle the hot stock into hot 500 ml (pint) or 1 L (quart) jars leaving ½ - inch headspace. Wipe the rims and adjust two piece lids. Process 500 ml (pint) 20 minutes, 1 L (quart) 25 minutes at 10 lb pressure.

Canning Sweet Potato

Wash sweet potatoes. Cut into 1 - inch strips and peel. Cut across the strips to form 1 - inch chunks. Place the sweet potatoes into a large stock pot. Bring to a boil. Boil 2 minutes. Pack the hot sweet potatoes into wide mouth 500 ml (pint) jars leaving 1 - inch headspace. Cover with boiling water leaving 1 - inch headspace. Add 1/4 tsp salt if desired. Wipe rims. Adjust two piece lids. Process 65 minutes at 10 lb pressure.


French Bread

I've been fine tuning the French Bread recipe using the KitchenAid® stand mixer. I find a longer knead time produces better results as you can see from this batch of bread. This is a recipe I've used several times in the breadmaker then modified to use the stand mixer. I have to tell you the results with the stand mixer are far superior to dough made in the breadmaker.

Dinner

I bought two of the family sized packages of chicken thighs on sale at Meijer's. Last night we grilled the other package of ten thighs. The intention was using some for dinner and the rest deboned then sliced for freezing. The thighs were grilled then glazed with Dianna Sauce during the last 15 minutes. They were served with steamed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and French bread. It wasn't an exactly low carb meal but it was low fat. Both potatoes were lightly seasoned with a little butter and sea salt allowing their natural flavours to shine. It sure was quite a tasty meal!

Beef Noodle Soup

As the weather gets gradually cooler, the soup pot becomes more enticing. I decided to make a pot of beef noodle soup yesterday. Most of the soups I make start with a vague idea of what I want then choose ingredients to get that result. The ingredients are always based on what I have on hand in the pantry and freezers. I used home canned carrots and beans to make this hearty soup.

Beef Noodle Soup

There is something comforting about any soup with noodles. Beef noodle soup is rich and flavourful, filling for the tummy and soothing for the soul. Pair with a hearty homemade bread and side salad for a wonderful cold weather dinner. This soup is very versatile so add what you have on hand then sit back and enjoy!

Beef Noodle Soup

1 large soup bone
2 lb stew beef
1 unpeeled onion
1 carrot
2 stocks celery
1 bay leaf
olive oil

2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tbsp Montreal Steak spice
1 - 500 ml (2 c) jar carrot coins
1 - 500 ml (2 c) green beans
2 c nibblet corn
1 chopped onion
¼ c tomato paste

Cut carrot and celery into thirds. Cut onion in half. Place soup bone, bay leaf, onion, celery and carrot in medium size stock pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and allow to simmer until meat is tender. Remove bone. Pour stock through a strainer and return to stock pot. Top with water so stock pot is a little over half full. Cut meat from bone and return both meat and bone to the stock pot. Brown stew beef in a little olive oil. Cut meat into bite size pieces then add to the stock pot. Bring the meat and stock to a low boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer about 30 minutes. Remove soup bone. Add remaining ingredients except for noodles. Bring to a boil. Add noodles. Continue cooking until noodles are cooked.

Home Canned Chicken

Home canned meats, poultry and fish are convenient products to have in a well stocked pantry. I don't purposely buy large amounts of meat to can nor do I can a lot of meat in comparison to some home canners. Rather canning meat is a spur of the moment opportunity that presents itself. Sunday we stopped at a Meijer's when we were in the US. Chicken thighs were on sale for 79 cents a pound so I picked up two family packages each containing ten pieces. The packages had been froze so were not suitable for refreezing. I decided to let them thaw in the fridge, use one package for a meal and pre-cooking and use the other package to can the meat and make stock.

Home Canned Chicken

Home canned chicken is ideal for making chicken salad and mixing with mayonnaise for sandwiches but it can be used for so much more. I like using the smaller 250 ml wide mouth jars for canning chicken. It's the perfect size for many uses. The yield from ten chicken thighs was seven lovely looking jars of canned chicken. The total cost of the canned chicken was $4.21 so cost per 250 jar is 60 cents.

I roasted the bones then added them to the remaining cooking liquid along with onion, carrot and celery for stock. I'll be defatting the stock so it won't be ready for canning until tomorrow. My basic chicken stock recipe can be found here. Factoring in the stock that should yield about 7 - 500 ml jars the overall cost for both products will be quite inexpensive.

Canning Chicken

Boil chicken until it is about ⅔ done. Remove the skin and cut meat from the bone. Cut the meat into smaller pieces. Pack the hot chicken into hot jars leaving 1 - inch headspace. Add ¼ tsp salt per 250 ml jar (optional). Ladle the hot cooking liquid over the chicken leaving 1 - inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and wipe rims. Adjust two piece lids. Process 1 hour and 15 minutes for 250 or 500 ml jars at 10 pounds pressure.

Home Canned Kidney Beans & Lima Beans

Even though I cook the majority of our meals from scratch I do like having homemade convenience foods in the pantry. Home canned beans are one of those convenience foods. I decided to can kidney and lima beans today. In an earlier entry I mentioned canning kidney beans but did not give the method. The first question is why would you can beans when they are so inexpensive in the stores. Consider that a bag of beans will cost me about $1 and give me about 16 - 500 ml jars at a cost of 6 cents per jar. Economically this is considerably cheaper than store bought canned beans bought on sale at 79 cents per can.

Home Canned Kidney and Lima Beans

Dried beans are extremely easy to can but you do need to pressure can. Dried beans can be canned anytime throughout the year as long as you have a supply of dried beans. These are convenient to have on the pantry shelf ready to use. Economically it is best to can a full canner load. There are several methods of canning beans including the USDA recommended method. I used a different processing method based on a long soak followed by slow heat then processing. The jars look quite nice!

I ended up with 17 - 500 ml jars of kidney beans, eight were red kidney beans and the remainder were dark red kidney beans. I only had enough lima beans for 3 - 500 ml jars but we don't use a lot of lima beans so that should be fine for now. While on first glance this looks like a lot of kidney beans consider that 3 to 4 jars go into a batch of chili so I really only have enough kidney beans for four large batches of chili meaning I will be canning kidney beans again the first part of the new year.

Canning Dried Beans
kidney, lima, navy, etc.

Soak beans overnight or 12 hours. Drain. Fill sterilized 500 ml jars about 2/3 full with the soaked beans. Pour water over the beans leaving 1 - inch headspace. Wipe the rim and adjust two piece caps. Place the jars in the pressure canner and put the lid on. Heat on medium heat for 30 minutes. Increase temperature to high and vent canner according to your manufacturer's recommendations. Pressure can 75 minutes at 10 lb pressure for 500 ml (pint) jars. Turn off heat. When canner has depressurized, remove jars and allow to cool. Check for seals then label and store.